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Facebook acquires Oculus VR

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Re: Facebook acquires Oculus VR

#671

Post by pavanky »

I don't understand facebook hate. While it is a bad platform in its current state (for me) because of all the noise, it is also a great platform for many people to stay connected.

Their engineering team also seems to deliver some great solutions and plays well with OSS community.

As for this deal, I do not understand how they are going to integrate it into their platform or even what they are going to do with Oculus. I would like to think it is a long term diversification strategy because they feel they have great technology.

Re: Facebook acquires Oculus VR

#672

Post by just_for_moment »

hack_edu wrote: post #342
debt wrote: post #296

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Instagram has been allowed to go at their own pace since they've been acquired. Parse, also, has essentially gone on it's own and created things at it's own pace. It seems they're having the same attitude with Whatsapp. I assume, especially with Carmack coming over, that FB will be extremely hands-off with the base technology behind the rift. Facebook is an engineering company; in the way it's run and with what it pu…

Yes, but Instagram and Parse are services that fall within Facebook's major product area and have teams with related experience to Facebook's daily operations. Oculus is not a service, just a technology; one that has no relation (nor clear route to one) to any Facebook-held product.

Look at the market. Don't you see it's counter-move to Google Glass?

Re: Facebook acquires Oculus VR

#675

Post by badsock »

interpol_p wrote: post #454
Kapura wrote: post #119

This is probably the most forward-thinking move that Facebook can make. I've personally been kicking around ideas about what society will look like in a post-VR revolution world, and it seems that Zuck et. al. have come to the same conclusion that I have, namely, it will change what it means to interact socially with others. Imagine a 10 year high school reunion that exists not in the old gymnasium, but in a virtual…

> Imagine a 10 year high school reunion that exists not in the old gymnasium, but in a virtual space where you can catch up with them. Why do people keep saying stuff like this? It doesn't sound good or exciting at all . It sounds about as exciting as video calls, QR codes, and NFC payments. Which is to say, utterly lacking in creative vision and not of benefit to humanity. VR has a real shot at transforming part of…

Or Zuckerberg's examples: seeing an avatar of your doctor in 3D, or your classmates in a classroom. It's got the whole "imagine a fridge that can tweet you when your milk is about to expire!" smell of having to work far too hard to come up with something interesting-sounding.

I think the reason people were excited was that this could have be something transformative - a new sensory conduit into our brains. And I think the disappointment is to have that be replaced by something so mired in the same-old same-old. A stereoscopic rendering of the world as it already is, by a player that's practially a figurehead of lack of innovation (other than in ops management and revenue models).

Re: Facebook acquires Oculus VR

#676

Post by archagon »

sillysaurus3 wrote: post #667
archagon wrote: post #609

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yikes. "Fuck you, Palmer." What the fuck? Folks, this is why creators on the internet have public meltdowns and abandon their communities and/or projects. (See: Phil Fish, TotalBiscuit, and many others.) Simply despicable how these so-called "fans", who have no idea how to run a multi-million-dollar business, can turn on a dime and start slinging vitriol at the person they claimed to idolize just a day earlier. How a…

May I ask, what happened with TotalBiscuit?

In his own words: http://www.reddit.com/r/Cynicalbrit/comments/1xrx27/in_light...

boogie2988's response is worth watching: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvSXgBmu2Pc

Nerd³ weighs in with his own experiences: http://www.reddit.com/r/bestof/comments/1xs45h/realtotalbisc...

Re: Facebook acquires Oculus VR

#677

Post by briantakita »

enneff wrote: post #658
briantakita wrote: post #472

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The similarities are they are legendary & forward thinking technologists given a large amount of capital to pursue their passion and scale their vision. Corporate title & organizition wise, they are different. Though I doubt Kurzweil worries too much about the current Ads, Search, Email, & Android platform. I would expect his role to be more forward thinking. I get the impression Carmack has a forward thinking role a…

Carmack is the CTO. He's in charge of the technical direction of the company as a whole. A company whose mission is pretty clearly defined. This is very, very different from what Kurzweil is doing at Google.

True, Oculus has more focus & a narrower scope.

Though, we will see what a $2B valuation does to a "clearly defined" mission. The VR market has to be grown, after all.

Google is expanding it's efforts in new markets that require substantial technical vision. Same with Oculus.

Kurzweil is the "Director of Engineering" at a company without a CTO. Surely, there's some similarities in their roles.

Not a 100% match, but some interesting similarities.

Re: Facebook acquires Oculus VR

#678

Post by sytelus »

Why Oculus had to sell out? I can't imagine them running out of capital. In current bubble market they should have VCs lined up outside their office if they wanted. I'm unable to think any other reason then plain old cashing out. Did FB used some backdoor to snap them or they actually willingly submitted themselves to cash out?

Re: Facebook acquires Oculus VR

#679

Post by manish_gill »

archagon wrote: post #609
mwilcox wrote: post #372

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow. He is getting demolished there.

Yikes. "Fuck you, Palmer." What the fuck? Folks, this is why creators on the internet have public meltdowns and abandon their communities and/or projects. (See: Phil Fish, TotalBiscuit, and many others.) Simply despicable how these so-called "fans", who have no idea how to run a multi-million-dollar business, can turn on a dime and start slinging vitriol at the person they claimed to idolize just a day earlier. How a…

They never had any problem taking money from these fans, though. Now they sell out to Facebook (yes it is a sellout), and fans get angry, you want to "revoke their Internet card"?

No, they don't get empathy for getting acquired for $2Billion.

Re: Facebook acquires Oculus VR

#680

Post by sillysaurus3 »

archagon wrote: post #676
sillysaurus3 wrote: post #667

Earlier quoted context omitted.

May I ask, what happened with TotalBiscuit?

In his own words: http://www.reddit.com/r/Cynicalbrit/comments/1xrx27/in_light... boogie2988's response is worth watching: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvSXgBmu2Pc Nerd³ weighs in with his own experiences: http://www.reddit.com/r/bestof/comments/1xs45h/realtotalbisc...

Wow. I wish I could give you ten upvotes for raising awareness about this. This is probably worth submitting to HN directly (go for it) because it's both newsworthy in gamedev circles and will help people in a similar situation come up with ideas to cope with the stress. Thank you!
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